If you can't share an item in Final Cut Pro X

Learn what to do if you can't share projects, clips, and other items in Final Cut Pro X.

If the share operation has failed

If you're trying to share an item and "The share operation Master File has failed" alert appears, check the format of the storage device your library is stored on. This might also occur when sharing to destinations other than the Master File destination. In the Finder, click on the storage device to select it, then choose File > Get Info. View drive format in the General section of the window.

Make sure to store Final Cut Pro X libraries on local volumes formatted as Mac OS Extended, Xsan volumes, and shared storage that uses the SMB protocol. Some storage devices might be pre-formatted in a format other than Mac OS Extended, such as FAT32.

Before attempting to share again, do any of the following:

Move your library to a properly formatted volume.

Back up the data on the storage device, reformat the device, then move the data back to the device.

If you see "This item cannot be shared while it is still referencing media on the camera," or Share menu options are dimmed

You might encounter the following when trying to share an item in Final Cut Pro:

"This item cannot be shared while it is still referencing media on the camera" alert.

Some clips have a camera icon on the bottom-left corner of the clip.

Share menu options are dimmed.

In your project, look for any clip with a camera icon . This icon indicates that the clip never successfully imported into a Final Cut Pro library. Instead, the clip is located on a connected camera, on a memory card, or in a camera archive. This could have occurred because a camera or other device was disconnected before the clip finished importing.

Use the browser search field to quickly find these clips.

In the Libraries sidebar, select any libraries, events, or folders you want to search.

Click the Search button at the top of the browser, and type missing in the search field. The browser shows all missing files. Any file located on a connected camera, on a memory card, or in a camera archive appears in the browser with a camera icon .

After you've located the affected clips, you'll need to reimport them from the original source to successfully share the item.

Reimport clips

To reimport clips, you must have the original media on a camera, on a memory card, or in a camera archive.